February 01, 2005

Suzanne C. Segerstrom ‘90

2004
Suzanne C. Segerstrom is the 2002 winner of the Templeton Positive Psychology Prize, one of the largest prizes in psychology, for work showing the influence of optimism on cellular immunity. Her research examining psychological influences on the immune system, particularly the interaction between environmental stressors and personality characteristics, is widely cited and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Norman Cousins Program in Psychoneuroimmunology, the Dana Foundation, and the Templeton Foundation.

Suzanne C. Segerstrom is the 2002 winner of the Templeton Positive Psychology Prize, one of the largest prizes in psychology, for work showing the influence of optimism on cellular immunity. Her research examining psychological influences on the immune system, particularly the interaction between environmental stressors and personality characteristics, is widely cited and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Norman Cousins Program in Psychoneuroimmunology, the Dana Foundation, and the Templeton Foundation.

An associate professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, Segerstrom received that institution’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 1999. She serves as a consulting editor for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, as well as an ad hoc reviewer for over 20 journals.

A native Oregonian, Segerstrom attended Lake Oswego’s Lakeridge High School. After graduating from Lewis & Clark College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and music, she went on to earn an MA and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Segerstrom is married to Jai Giffin, and the couple resides in Nicholasville, Kentucky.